Kathleen Davies, on paid leave, runs for State Auditor position

Davies will have to collect around 7,000 signatures to be on the ballot as an independent.

She has worked in the state auditor’s office since 2010, but she’s been on paid leave for more than a year and won’t explain why.

Davies also won’t comment on a News Journal story from last year that reported a probe into her travel reimbursements.

Instead, she focuses on touting her work during her career in Delaware. Davies said she has more than 20 years of overall government auditing experience.

“During that time, we put out some very good work," she said. "I brought performance auditing to the forefront. During that time, there wasn’t a lot of performance auditing in the office and I’m a big advocate for that.”

She has helped exposed charter schools who were misspending taxpayer dollars and highlights the office's auditing of sustainable energy utility reporting.

“I prefer to encourage compliance, but sometimes when there’s a consistency for non-compliance, then there’s a need to do those types of reports,” she said.

Current State Auditor Tom Wagner declined to comment for this story. Wagner, a Republican who’s been in office since 1989, has yet to announce whether he’ll seek another term next year.

Democrat Dennis E. Williams, a former North Wilmington State Representative, is also running for Auditor.